Quote

I never fixed a story. I didn't make judgments, I let the listener make judgments. When I got to the end of the story, if it had a moral, I let the listener find it.

Tom T. Hall

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Tom T. Hall
Age: 85 †
Born: 1936
Born: May 25
Died: 2021
Died: August 20
Author
Singer
Singer-Songwriter
Songwriter
Writer
Olive Hill
Kentucky
Thomas Hall
Stories
Judgments
Find
Listeners
Make
Fixed
Never
Judgment
Moral
Story
Didn
Ends
Listener

More quotes by Tom T. Hall

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I never hid out. I was never big enough a star.
Tom T. Hall
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The enticing allure of Nashville is that there is always something new coming down the pike. Put this record on and you’ll hear footsteps.
Tom T. Hall
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Songwriting is as much a craft as a talent.
Tom T. Hall
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Is this really Butte, Montana, or just existential blues?
Tom T. Hall
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My best album is called In Search Of A Song. That was my best shot right there. My finest hour, as they say. I could listen to the whole thing all the way through. There's nothing really crammed into it.
Tom T. Hall
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I had the notion that I wanted to write the great dirty American novel, so I went to Roanoke College on the GI Bill.
Tom T. Hall
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After I retired and came off the road, I gathered up all my musical instruments and suddenly, I wanted them all to be perfect.
Tom T. Hall
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I've been polite and I've always shown up. Somebody asked me if I had any advice for young people entering the business. I said: Yeah, show up.
Tom T. Hall
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My theory is if you have a religion, it's a good one. Because some people don't have any at all.
Tom T. Hall
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If they want to come out and watch me paint or dig potatoes or mend fences, I don't care. I don't do interviews not because I have anything to hide, but when you retire, the word has a meaning to me. It's a place in life, a part of the journey. You just don't quit work. You develop an attitude where you can do what you please.
Tom T. Hall
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I love winners when they cry, losers when they try.
Tom T. Hall
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I have had hundreds of people work for me over the years, and I don't think I ever fired anybody.
Tom T. Hall
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The best compliment I ever had is, one day I was in Nashville, some disc jockey said, Hey, that sounds like a Tom T. Hall song. Up until then there hadn't been any such thing.
Tom T. Hall
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Nobody knows a hit before it's a hit.
Tom T. Hall
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Sinclair Lewis was asked one time to give a talk to class of students about writing. When he got there he asked the class, Do you people want to be writers?and they all said yes. Then Lewis said, Why the hell aren't you at home writing?
Tom T. Hall
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Whiskey's to tough, Champagne costs too much, Vodka puts my mouth in gear. I hope this refrain, Will help me explain, As a matter of fact, I like beer.
Tom T. Hall
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The way you look for songs, you find yourself looking for little signals and clues about life and how things are.
Tom T. Hall
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This generation should entertain this generation. It's only fair. When I was a kid, I mowed the lawn. Now, somebody else's kid can mow the lawn.
Tom T. Hall
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Young kids are doing the same thing I did, but they're doing it differently. They don't do brain surgery the way they used to do it either.
Tom T. Hall
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Religion is a strange, wonderful thing. More crimes have been committed in the name of righteousness than any other notion.
Tom T. Hall